The Iran Nuclear Deal: What You Need to Know

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Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, right, and Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's atomic energy agency, spoke at the airport in Tehran on Friday upon their return from Lausanne, Switzerland.CreditEbrahim Noroozi/Associated Press

By The New York Times

April 3, 2015

It Is Only Preliminary

The nuclear accord announced by Iran, the United States and five other world powers on Thursday was surprisingly specific and placed limits on Tehran’s nuclear program for the next 15 years.

Its central achievement was to reduce Iran’s existing stockpile of nuclear fuel and its capacity to produce new fuel to a level that would ensure it would take at least a year for Iran to manufacture enough fuel for an atomic weapon if it chose to violate the accord.

It took two years of negotiations, capped by eight tumultuous days and nights of talks that appeared on the brink of breakdown several times.

Negotiators produced a framework for a comprehensive agreement that parties say they intend to draft by June 30. If that final deal is reached and signed, it will be the most significant accord between Iran and major world powers since its Islamic revolution in 1979.

Under the Terms, Iran...

• Is allowed to keep its nuclear facilities, which it insists are for civilian uses only, but they would be subject to strict production limits. Two facilities will be converted into research sites without fissile material.

• Cuts the number of its centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium, by two-thirds to 5,060, and reduces its stockpile of low-enriched uranium from 10,000 kilograms to 300 kilograms — not enough for a nuclear weapon — for 15 years. Thousands of centrifuges will be put into storage.

• Agrees to redesign a heavy-water reactor at Arak in a way that would keep it from producing plutonium, a weapons-usable fuel.

• Gets relief from a range of international sanctions that have sharply reduced its sale of oil and impeded access to the international financial system.

Negotiations over research and development of more advanced centrifuges were particularly difficult. The Iranians won the right to research, but not to use more modern machines for production for the next 10 years.

Some Delicate Issues Remain

• The timing of sanctions relief. Iran wants all sanctions removed quickly. The United States says sanctions would be removed in stages after Iran shows compliance with the terms of a final nuclear agreement.

• The Americans want all nuclear facilities “anywhere in the country,” including military bases, to be subject to inspections that could “investigate suspicious sites or allegations of a covert enrichment facility.”

• The process for ensuring Iran remains in compliance with the terms of the agreement and the process for reimposing sanctions if its is found to fall out of compliance.

• The details of how Iran’s existing stockpile of nuclear fuel would be diluted, neutralized or removed from the country.

What Did Obama Say About It?

American officials say even if Iran breaks the deal, it would not be able to develop enough material for a nuclear weapon for a year, giving the international community time to respond.

President Obama insisted that the deal “cuts off every pathway” for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon and establishes the most intrusive inspection system in history.

“If Iran cheats,” he said, “the world will know it.”

What Did Iranian Leaders Say About It?

Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, who won the 2013 election promising to mend the country’s ties with the rest of the world, said on Twitter that he had congratulated his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and the rest of the negotiating team for their “tireless efforts around the clock.”

There was no immediate reaction from Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who in recent weeks has emphasized that all Iranians should support the negotiations.

What Was the Reaction in Iran?

There was huge demand within Iran for an end to Western sanctions on the oil and banking sectors. There were celebrations on the streets in some parts of Tehran on Thursday night. But Iranian negotiators will have to overcome significant political objections from hard-liners, the military and scientific establishments.

And the Rest of the Middle East?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the world’s most vocal critic of the emerging agreement, demanded on Friday that Iran recognize his country’s right to exist as part of a deal. He continues to argue that a deal poses a grave danger to the region and the world.

Many leaders in Arab countries also oppose the deal, which comes amid tensions over Iran’s involvement in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Mr. Obama called King Salman of Saudi Arabia on Friday to reassure the United States’ longtime ally that he remains concerned about “Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region,” and invited the king and other Gulf leaders to Camp David in the spring.

What About in the U.S.?

Mr. Obama will have a hard time convincing a skeptical Congress, where Republicans and many Democrats are deeply concerned that he has grown so desperate to reach a deal that he is trading away American and Israeli security. He warned Republicans in Congress that if they tried to impose new sanctions to undermine the effort, the United States would be blamed for a diplomatic failure.

But if a final agreement is reached, it could reorder America’s relationship with a country that has been an avowed adversary for 36 years, and would define the president’s foreign policy legacy.